1st Knight @ Oct 19 2007, 03:08 PM wrote: Do you think I would be better off starting out with the 185's or the 425's........ The 185's run great, and the 425's all I know of them needing is to fix or replace a float in the carb.

Joe,

You asked Shannon this question, but I don't think he ever gave you his opinion. I think it was an important question, so I'll step in and offer mine.

I would definitely recommend you do your transition flights in a Lazair having the smaller Rotax engines, not the twin cylinder 425's. If you have an engine lose power on takeoff, you will be much better off with the smaller engines. Besides the fact that I suspect you wouldn't immediately notice the power loss, the unbalanced thrust will get you in trouble much faster with the big engines. The Rotax is a nice, reasonable sized engine for the Lazair, and the 425's are quite powerful and I think you should really have some good level of experience with the plane before flying with them. Things happen faster with the larger engines. It's easier for a new pilot to deal with things when they happen slower. I don't think you ever mentioned your weight, but unless you're well over 200 pounds, you should do fine with the Rotax's.

Hey I checked on the registration and I guess theris like 100 sign ups a day to this forum but they do not get approved unless you send a email after your register to web @ lazair.com and tell them your username. Or is just goes into the trash with all the rest of the spammers.

This seems to work cuz I don;t see the guys advertizing on here like once in a while before.

Ozzie has had great success removing old tape adhesive from his Lazair wings using small steam cleaners (you can find info on using them under his postings here at Lazair.com). I picked one up a few weeks ago at a garage sale so I could give it a try when I redo the wings on my EC. It's like the small ones they sell at Costco. You might already own one, or know someone that does that you could borrow. I've used a nasty concoction of lacquer thinner, MEK, acetone, etc. (whatever solvents I had around the shop) to soften the adhesive in the past, and hate it. Gotta be awful for your heath! After getting the goo soft, I use a plastic putty knife (actually, kid's cheap little plastic rulers from Wal-mart) to scrap it up into balls of goo and pull it off, then clean up with solvent. Just remember, most all solvents will also melt and dissolve your foam ribs, including the ones inside your spars, so be careful and don't use more than what a soft rag will hold w/o dripping or bleeding.

At your weight, I still think the Rotaxes would be best. Just use a longer field with good clear approches. Maybe Tyler will chime in, as I think he is about your weight and has experience with both engines.

I just happened to be in Myrtle Beach last weekend visiting family, so snuck off Saturday morning to attend the fly-in. Almost missed Thomas, catching up with him just before having to split. I was hoping to see a Lazair there, as there were lots of them sold in the Carolinas by David LaGrande in the early eighties. The weather was pretty awful Thursday and Friday, so the turn out they got on Saturday was actually pretty good. All attending craft were LSA or GA, no legitimate part 103 Ultralights. BTW, by missing the fly-in, you also missed your chance to attend the Cotton Festival in town!

You are certainly welcome to come by anytime; my home is just 5 miles West of Dulles International Airport.

shorty posted a pic of a can of spray stuff to take off the old tapes. he showed me in person and holy crap is it effective. search the website for it, its a 3M product. basically spray it on, wait a minute, wipe it off. then clean with solvent to remove oily residue.

i have never flown under rotax 185's, i've only ever flown with JPXs. at my heaviest i was flying my series III EC at about 290 pounds of me....performance wasn't magical but i suspect i could keep up with a regular sized dude under 185s...

i've had many engine failures with the JPXs, and all i can say is that when one engine dies, you must land in a field on the side of the dead engine, because the other one is gonna pull you that way

Forget the steam it a waste of time as well as ALL the kick ass solvents -MEK acetone, varsol , thinners ,gas etc........ THEY DO NOT WORK ON ACRYLIC ADHESIVES. If you have used the cheap tapes then it wil come off easy .

Hey, I forgot about that stuff. I gotta get some of it and try it! Of course you're right, Ozzie and I have done mostly old Mylar jobs that used rubber based adhesives. I couldn't find the old messages about it using the search engine on this site, so I used Google. They list lots of sources for a 3M Citrus based adhesive remover. Is this the correct stuff? Cost around $15-20 per nice sized spray can. They also list a 3M citrus cleaner, that's about the same price. It would seem that the adhesive remover would be the product to use, but you're advising using the cleaner? Do you have the actual 3M product part number so we can order the correct stuff the first time?

Hi all, just to say when i used the steam to get the tape off, i still had to remove the glue using citrasolve. using solvents ect without using steam i found i was wasting more than half the product just to lift the tape and still had most of the glue left to deal with. i just found that after developing the right technique the whole process was quicker and much safer than the old mek method being used at the time. ie steam tape off then citrasolve glue.
if shorty's product works as a one step process removing glue and tape in one application leaving just to clean up. And does it faster than the other method sign me up anything to speed up the worst job during rebuilding suits me fine. something i hope i wont have to do for a while.

here's a photo of a must have sundial for every hanger. saw this in Italy at
www.euroflyulm.com. factory/airstrip they have a very a fine range of aircraft i really like their 'flash comfort' for when i retire... i scored a two week work trip

one of the workers with the company there is right into flying and paragliding, the alps start about 5k away. weekend was pretty involved. but rather chilly . having my feet still on the ground at 6,000ft is a bit of a novelty for me. 100yd dash is a bit of a killer tho. perfect Lazair country open fields thermals and ridge lift. eyes open.. i counted no less than 55 para gliders in the air at anyone time plus two silent self launch gliders and some ultralights. to easy to have fun, the whole area around Semonzo is known as simply Airpark.

looking forward to this summers flying and next years trip.
ozzie

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